Hoshi no Guu (Star Piece Quest) (M)

[Gildarts]

It was a waltz. Gildarts moved left and Guu sprinted to flank the enemy. Gildarts never saw much grace in slamming someone’s fist into another body, however, there often was a flow to every battle he had been in. As a veteran and master of battle, he could adapt to any flow, however absurd or indistinct it was. In such an abstract world as the Omniverse, it was much more difficult to be incisive when sizing up your enemy. Never, or nearly never, did an enemy’s pose match its practice. Gildarts for example, didn’t appear to have a strange parasite in his brain, yet here he was, and it spoke in his ear during the battle with that slithering tone of hers, wearing down on his psyche.

Gildarts, you’re getting weaker, just give up now, let me take over, I can win this, you know I can. With me as your conductor I will set the stage aflame. What’s that? It has been too long, ever since you discovered your magic, you’ve had to be careful, your childhood HA oh that’s right, you never had one, forced to run far away from any form of civilization until you could control the ‘earthquakes’ and natural disasters you would cause. Well Prime, I’ve never had the fear of killing, all life is finite, even here. One day you die and suddenly you don’t come back, that’s Omni’s promissssee. Ending these tw- one very powerful enemy is mine. Let me take over?

The creature already knew the answer, Gildarts hadn’t gotten this far by being weak or letting other people fight his battles, no, his stubbornness and diligence always carried him through to the end, good or bad. Plus, he smiled at this thought, he already had a partner. And they had the best reason to want to win: Everything was on the line.

A punch sent directly into Gildarts’ lower lumbar knocked him to the ground and caused a flinching wince to correlate on his face. He stooped over, caught himself on his good knee, and then stood again, closing his eyes and sensing the tension of the room. As they shut out the light and he welcomed the blackness of his eyelids, the sounds of the casino surged. Clattering booze glasses, broken machines pouring out money and regular ones chiming with sounds that were meant to catch your attention and imply you would win millions if you put a quarter in. A few of the lingering bystanders were either loitering to watch, or were scattering out the entrances of the casino (and a few out of the new hole in the wall)!

Gildarts closed his eyes and began to focus, two could play at this game, and there would be only one to prevail. With focus crunching the layers of skin together between his brows, the Prime’s auburn hair began to rise as power crackled with static at the ends of his hair. His eyes were narrowed slits, however he had not graduated his power outwardly enough to shake the room, as the roof would surely fall in on them. “Guu, if you can, focus and see if you can sense where she’ll pop up next,” his lips curved into a half smile, “I’ll get the lights.”

A step away, there was a half-empty beer glass sitting at one of the slot machines, he picked it up, and precisely tossed it in a very straight line across the room, it fell at the end of its journey about a foot, before slamming directly into the switches with an absolutely sparkling smash. Most of the lights overhead dimmed and went out, but the slot machines were still very bright. Guu happened to be standing in front of one, and Gildarts lightly grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side with every intention of staying close.

“That’s not very nice, to test an old woman’s eyesight... I’m going to have to make you pay for straining my eyes,” Dama said, her voice shifting from one side of the room to the other while Gildarts found a particularly adequate shadow to find his next plan. Both Guu and Gildarts were hiding now, making it more difficult for Dama to find them, but eventually, one would find the other.

There was no speaking between the pair, only an exchange of a glance that could be caught by the flash of the whites of their eyes. “There!” Guu told him with her eyes, but a punch was thrown straight into the Prime’s cheek.

“Found you,” Dama chittered, “Too slow. You don’t have much going for you other than that fine physique, do you?”

Guu caught another glimpse of their foe and her arm extended like an elastic band straight in front of her, Dama was knocked to the ground, however receded to the shadows once more. “She’s fast,” Guu spoke and dragged Gildarts to a new location with better shadows and ushered him to crouch down as though it were a better situation for hiding.

The Fairytail mage wasn’t sure what would happen if the pair was separated, so he did his best to heed Guu’s warning, though now it seemed like they were the one’s hiding and Dama was doing the seeking, the tension made the hair on his neck stand on end, while Guu seemed to be focusing on pinpointing Dama’s next move.

Guu’s hand suddenly gripped Gildarts’ organic forearm tightly, her eyes had widened and she whispered, “She’s... Changing.”

Changing? Gildarts thought before suddenly a huge power began emanating across the room. Gildarts felt waves of energy rippling in the air.

“Our chances of winning just...” Guu spoke quietly and Gildarts took it as his turn to power up as well.

Ha, you're a fool if you think you can stand a chance now, the voice of his other enemy, the Malefactor, surged in his mind, Gildarts it is unwise to wait until your last desperate moment to agree to let me take over, I can unleash so much more power onto this being, and it looks like she's going to be stronger than ever, you already weren't even a match, you were playing footsies in the dark! Come on, I'm all you've got, and you'd be gambling with this your partner's life if you thought any differently. I'll win for you. Take my offer and set me free.

“There’s two of us, and only one of her. We just have to hit her with everything we’ve got.” Gildarts announced and then seemed to go full DBZ, aura forming around his figure and the ground dented at his touch. It would surely call the attention of their foe, stealth and suppression or not. But Gildarts and Guu had to be ready for the monster that was coming next.

Dama’s ultimate form had arrived.